With respect to typical workplace service areas, such as those facilities in a manufacturing plant, health care facility, office building, and the like, maintenance of the service areas is generally assigned to a maintenance team member (“attendant”) that visits the service area on a scheduled or periodic basis to refill dispensers and ensure the cleanliness of the facility. The same attendant or attendants may be assigned responsibility for a multitude of service areas within the building or site.
In general, the attendant has little to no knowledge of the condition of the facility, especially the fullness state of the various product dispensers, until actually entering the facility. In this regard, the attendant must be prepared for completely empty dispensers in the service areas they are responsible for. The refill supplies are generally not stocked in the service areas, and the attendant must carry sufficient refill supplies for a “worst case scenario”, which can be an overly burdensome task depending on the number of service areas and types of dispensers. In view of this, it has been found that significant product wastage can be attributed to certain refill practices by the attendants.
For example, a towel dispenser may be one-third full when checked by an attendant. It is a common practice, however, to attempt to overstuff the dispenser with a full refill during a scheduled maintenance visit. This overstuffed condition often results in jamming of the dispenser or overuse of towels by the service area patrons, for example when multiple towels are dispensed as a result of the overstuffed condition. If the dispenser has an overstuff-prevention device, it is also a practice to discard the remaining towels in the dispenser to that a new, full, refill can be loaded into the dispenser. Over time, such wastage can be quite expensive for the building proprietor.
When the attendant has been assigned responsibility for a number of service areas within a facility or site, it is the typical practice for the attendant to establish a route between the service areas for filling the dispensers regardless of the actual depletion state of the consumable product or whether it would be more efficient for a different attendant to replace the product at the same or a different time. This practice can also lead to significant wastage over time.
The industry would benefit from a system and method wherein product wastage is reduced by a more efficient use of the dispenser products by patrons prior to refill by the service area attendant.